US searches for missing navy SEALs, launches fresh strikes on Houthis

Military said the pair went missing during an operation to board a boat carrying Iranian military supplies to Yemeni rebels.

US Central Command forces, in coordination with the UK and support from Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, and Bahrain conducted joint strikes on Houthi targets.

The US military was searching for two Navy SEALs lost at sea during an operation that seized Iranian-made missile parts bound for Houthi rebels in Yemen, as the US launched another series of strikes against the group.

The waters off the Yemen coastline have become a zone of increasing geopolitical turbulence since the repercussions of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel spread into the wider region, drawing in Washington and Iran-backed groups such as the Houthis.

The SEALs, reported lost off the coast of Somalia on Friday, were taking part in a night-time operation to board a boat in the international waters of the Arabian Sea, the US military said. SEALs, or sea-air-land special-operations forces of the US Navy, are specialists in unconventional warfare.

One fell into the water while trying to climb into the small boat, known as a dhow, according to a US defence official. Another SEAL jumped in after him, in line with his training and protocols, the official said. A drone overhead, which was intended for the original mission, captured footage of the incident, the official said.

The Navy took the dhow’s 14 crew members aboard its own vessel and sank the captured boat after concluding it was unsafe, the military said without elaborating.

The US strike on the Houthis on Tuesday, the third since last week, targeted militants at sites who were preparing antiship missiles to fire at commercial vessels in the Red Sea.

“These missiles were prepared to launch from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and presented an imminent threat to both merchant and US Navy ships in the region,” said US Central Command, which is responsible for American military operations in the Middle East.

Several hours after the US strikes, the Houthis launched a missile at the M/V Zografia, a Greek-owned, Maltese flagged ship, striking it.

The ship remained seaworthy and no injuries were reported, Centcom said. And on Monday, Houthi militants used an antiship missile against the M/V Gibraltar Eagle, a Marshall Islands-flagged, US-owned and operated containership, resulting in the US strikes against the missile strikes Tuesday.

The Zografia, which was sailing from Vietnam to the Suez Canal, was fired upon by gunmen on small boats and then hit by a missile, said Christopher Long, intelligence director at UK maritime security consulting firm Neptune P2P Group. An official at the vessel’s manager, Vulcanus Technical Maritime Enterprise, said the vessel had been attacked but declined to comment further.

Such attacks, and Western retaliation to them, have jolted global markets, rerouted international shipping and prompted major oil companies to pull back from sending cargoes through the Red Sea via the Suez Canal. That route normally accounts for around 12 per cent of global seaborne trade.

Shell recently suspended transit through the Red Sea amid concerns about the security of its sailors and possible oil spills if vessels it charters came under attack, people familiar with the matter said Tuesday. Others to have paused travel through the waterway as a result of the geopolitical tensions include BP, Maersk and Qatar Energy.

In the operation involving the two missing SEALs, the US military said it seized Iranian-made missile guidance systems and warheads. A photo released by the US military showed about three-dozen parts, which defence officials said was the sum of everything they captured.

The parts could be used in the same kinds of missiles the Houthis have used to attack ships in the nearby Red Sea in recent weeks, the US military said, adding that it was the first such seizure since November 2019.

“It is clear that Iran continues shipment of advanced lethal aid to the Houthis,” said Gen. Erik Kurilla, the commander of Centcom.

“This is yet another example of how Iran actively sows instability throughout the region.” Fabian Hinz, a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank in London, said the photos appeared to show parts of one Iranian-made anti-cruise missile and several rocket engines with a range of nearly 800 miles (1290km).

“It doesn’t change the strategic balance, but it is a significant seizure,” he said. “It touches exactly the systems that have been of concern to Western nations.”

A member of the Houthi political bureau and a spokesman for the Iranian delegation at the United Nations in New York didn’t return requests for comment on the weapons. Iran denies supplying arms to the Houthis and says it only supports them politically.

Houthi rebels in Yemen have carried out at least 30 drone and missile attacks on ships off the Yemen coastline in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza where Israel is fighting a war against Hamas.

In retaliation, the US led strikes against Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen last week.

Many of the ships attacked had no link to Israel – which the Houthis say they are targeting – as the strikes become more indiscriminate.

The UN imposed an arms embargo on Yemen in 2018 meant to cut off the flow of weapons into the country that has been wrecked by a long-running civil war. A prime mission for the US military in the region is to prevent Iran from sending weapons to Houthi allies in Yemen. The efforts have had mixed success.

In recent years, the US says it has seized more than 9000 rifles, nearly 300 machine guns, about 194 rocket launchers, more than 70 antitank guided missiles and more than 1.1 million rounds of ammunition that Iran was trying to provide to the Houthis.

Last fall, the US said it was sending the 1.1 million rounds of seized ammunition to the Ukraine military to aid in its efforts to fight Russia.

But the recent Houthi attacks have demonstrated the breadth and depth of the Houthi arsenal.

The militants in Yemen have become one of the region’s most adept players in using drones to attack their adversaries. Houthi fighters have launched successful attacks targeting Saudi Arabia’s oil industry and the United Arab Emirates, hundreds of miles away.

In 2022, the Houthis agreed to abide by a ceasefire in Yemen while they embarked on peace talks with Saudi Arabia brokered by the US and U.N.

Skeptics of the truce warned that the Houthis were using the break in fighting to resupply their arsenal.

The US waited until the military notified the SEALs’ family members that their loved ones were missing before releasing the details of Friday’s incident, the official said, on account of the small size of the SEAL community.

The search is continuing, the official said, in part because the waters are warm and they may still be alive.

“We are conducting an exhaustive search for our missing teammates,” said Kurilla of Centcom.

The Wall Street Journal